Post on 17-Jul-2015
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Future of Cities 2
Future of Cities project
Project aim
Provide central and local government with an
evidence base to support policy decisions
in the short term which will lead to positive
outcomes for cities in the long term.
1. Review evidence
2. Explore nature of long term challenges
3. Develop capability for long term policy
Living in Cities
Urban Economies
Urban Metabolism
Urban Form
Urban Infrastructure
Urban Governance
Holistic perspective:
6 key themes UK system (national), city systems (local)
Spatial scales
Time horizon
2065
Future of Cities
We continue to engage with a broad range of stakeholders
through a series of exercises to develop the evidence base.
Our ways of working
3
City visits 19 cities
City projects 6 local projects
City Visions network
Working papers 8 published, 8+ forthcoming,
4+ think pieces
Workshops 14 Whitehall departments
5 expert workshops
Scenarios National forecasts
Local scenarios
Future of Cities
Data & Science of Cities
4
• The density of interactions in cities
makes them important generators
and consumers of data.
• Understanding the future challenges
facing UK cities is dependent on the
availability of more reliable data.
• Data on its own will not make cities
smarter!
• Analytics unlocks the potential of
data to increase our understanding of
cities, supporting the further
development of a science of cities.
Future of Cities
Opportunities
5
• Data richness: New apps and sensors in the urban fabric will allow services to generate and use
data in real-time to improve.
• Improving services: analysis of data at the local and national level can provide key opportunities
for cities to manage resources and provide services more efficiently.
• Making urban governance more integrated and responsive: increasing availability of data will
change the role that citizens can play in the design and operation of their cities.
• Making cities more Resilient: better and more widely available information to inform decision-
making will allow cities to prevent, or at least recover quicker, from severe threats, such as
environmental shocks and terrorism
• Revealing Hidden Synergies: more communications means more potential for businesses and
people to interact. This has allowed new online peer-to-peer marketplaces to compete with
traditional business models.
Future of Cities
Challenges
6
1. Accessing data: too often data is locked away from where it could have most impact by
technological or institutional barriers. By the time data is received it is often out of date.
Government needs to engage with data-holders across sector divides unlock the full potential this
data has.
3. Cities are sites of great interdependency, and yet the data landscape is highly fragmented.
4. Opening and sharing data: Government needs to incentivise the opening and sharing of data. A
single public agency, such as the UK Statistics Authority, should have responsibility for regulating
data access and privacy.
5. Fostering privacy and trust: Government must be proactive in ensuring concerns in these
areas are met.
6. Delivering long term solutions at pace: cities need to work out what is needed and do it quickly,
but in a way that the next requirements can build on progressively to avoid reworking the vision
later.
2. Cities themselves are interdependent. Sharing of projection and forecast data
between local governments enhances the robustness of local long term planning.
Future of Cities
Key messages: a summary
7
Interdependencies in city and regional systems are of
crucial importance and this underpins much of our
thinking; the science of cities helps us to handle this
Technology is helping cities to become smart, but this is
focused on the present. We need to be smart for the
long run
Technological change, and the fact, to put it technically,
that cities are complex nonlinear systems, means that
we cannot expect to forecast over 25 and 50 year time
horizons. What we can do, and will do, is develop
scenarios that can be tested
Kathryn Moore, HS2: Landscape Vision for Birmingham, 2012
Future of Cities 8
Well-being and liveability: access to work
(incomes), housing, skills and services
Develop and realise economic potential at the
city scale; Future proofing through a skilled and
educated workforce
Develop realistic sustainability policies and plans
Urban form: densities and accessibilities,
brownfields vs garden cities
Key messages: a summary
Studio Linfors, Cloud Skippers, 2009
Future of Cities 9
Infrastructure systems, land ……
Functional city regions; autonomy
and subsidiarity
Develop enhanced foresight
capabilities in both local and
central government
Key messages: a summary
URBED, Uxcester Masterplan, Wolfson
Economics Prize, 2014
Future of Cities
Next steps: Scenarios
10
We will explore scenarios:
based on trend projection
driven by an articulation of aspirations
examining plausible extremes
• market forces (and some planning)
• policy reform (dealing with the ‘social’)
• new sustainability paradigm
(environmental challenges)
• fortress world (polarisation)
Through City Vision network and at the UK
system level – focusing on population
distributions, connectivities and major challenges.
Future of Cities 11
Are there barriers to the sharing of
forecast data between local authorities?
Which data sets are especially useful
for long term planning at the local level?
What can national government do to
ensure data sets for long term decision-
making are available to local government?
How can national government support the development of the
capabilities required for using data for long term planning?
To what extent are such data sets already
shared between local authorities?
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